Pink Is for Boys

To whom does a color belong? Pearlman (Groundhog's Day Off) invites readers to think about this question gender-agnostically. "Pink is for boys," he writes. "And girls. And bows on fancy clothes." A bow, of course, could be a snappy bow tie on a dress shirt, or a big bow on a party dress. Nine more colors follow, with the boy-and-girl order flipped each time ("Green is for girls. And boys.") But except for an evocative acknowledgement that everyone owns the color orange in the form of "popsicles dribbling down sticky chins," the narrative sags after the opening salvo against traditional binary thinking and opts for predictable pairings (yellow is for paper crowns, brown is for teddy bears, and boys and girls have access to both). Happily, Kaban's (Old MacDonald Had a Truck) illustrations, resembling 1960s animation, create an inviting, kinetic world. Her characters are bundles of mischievous, untrammeled energy, with mouths wide open in expressions of infectious and very toothy joy, as if using their inside voices--or paying attention to any admonition from an adult--is the furthest thing from their minds. Ages 4-8. (June)

PreS-Gr 1—It starts with "Pink is for boys. And girls. And bows on fancy clothes." So the structure of the book begins with a color for girls and boys on one page followed by another thing it's good for on the next. Each duo is its own vignette. Blue baseball uniforms, yellow crowns, green grass, orange Popsicles, purple unicorns ("because...unicorns!"), etc. It is all summed up on the second-to-last page, "And all the colors are for EVERYONE. Girls and boys." The illustrations are an integral part of the reading experience as they perfectly set the scene for each color be it on the ball field, race track, park, or fancy dance. They depict a reccurring cast of characters; the kids are all joyously engaged within each scene. Kaban uses a mix of saturated color and white space to good effect and easily shows a myriad of activities. VERDICT A good choice for opening discussion about color stereotypes, but one that ultimately undermines its message by equating "boys and girls" with "everyone," and failing to recognize nonbinary children. An additional purchase for most libraries.—Catherine Callegari, Gay-Kimball Library, Troy, NH